Dec. 27, 2012
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Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, shown before a game against the San Diego Chargers on Nov. 1, 2012, in San Diego, says the shootings were "the saddest thing that ever happened" to him. / Gregory Bull, AP

by Steve Wieberg, Special for USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Wieberg, Special for USA TODAY Sports

KANSAS CITY, Mo. â?? Jamaal Charles made no attempt Thursday to play down the second Pro Bowl selection of his five-year NFL career.

It's reward for the toil and sweat that lifted the Kansas City running back from a serious knee injury a year ago to the top of the AFC rushing standings.

"Nobody," he said, "expected me to be where I'm at right now."

It's also salve for a deeper, more personal pain.

Near the end of a disappointing season on the field â?? the Chiefs take a 2-13 record into Sunday's finale at Denver â?? teammate Jovan Belcher took the life of his girlfriend and then his own in a violent outburst that shook the team and the entire league. The shootings hit Charles perhaps harder than anyone. His wife, Whitney, was a cousin to the slain woman, Kasandra Perkins. Charles had introduced the couple to each other.

"It's probably â?¦ the saddest thing that ever happened to me," he said, speaking quietly to USA TODAY Sports after practice Wednesday afternoon. "The sweetest thing is making it to the Pro Bowl, coming off knee surgery.

"There's a lot of stuff I've been through this year. But it's one of the best years I feel like I've ever had. â?¦ I kept with my faith, kept strong, and I believed in myself. And I kept my family strong, as well."

Kansas City landed a total of five players on the AFC's Pro Bowl roster, something of an oddity for a team so woeful that it's positioned to make the first pick in the NFL's annual draft in April. But Charles' selection was a virtual given. The 5-11, 199-pound running back has rushed for 1,456 yards â?? most in the conference and third most in the league behind Adrian Peterson's 1,898 and Marshawn Lynch's 1,490 â?? and five touchdowns.

He punctuated his 15-game performance with a 226-yard day against Indianapolis last Sunday. Earlier in the season, Charles ran for a franchise-record 233 yards against New Orleans.

He now has topped 1,100 yards in three of the past four years, the exception a 2011 season that saw him go down in the Chiefs' second game with a ligament tear in his left knee. It required reconstructive surgery.

Soreness in the knee slowed him at the start of this season. He carried six times for three yards in Week 2 at Atlanta. But with a 91-yard breakaway for a TD in the overtime win in New Orleans the following Sunday, he was off and running.

"That's one of those plays that Jamaal has made a career out of, those big types of plays where it's just amazing how he goes from zero to 100 (mph) in a split second," quarterback Matt Cassel said. "He's gotten better as the season has gone on, too. The knee's continued to get stronger. He came in here every single day, working with the trainers and taking care of himself, and that's just as important as maintaining your rehab and everything else.

"He's done a great job. The staff here has done a great job of helping him. But at the same time, he's a special talent."

"Anytime players come off major injuries, you really don't know what to expect," he said. "â?¦ Until you get out there on the field and take a hit, be hit, plant and cut and do those kinds of things, you're not sure. But he went through training camp, went through the preseason, and I think he got better and more confident as he did that and was able to feel confident in the fact that he could run with it and he could plant and he could cut and do the things he had done before. And he's had a very good year for us."

Charles has not spoken at length about the Belcher tragedy. In a statement two days afterward, he remembered Perkins as "not only family, but a friend and a loving mother" and said "my actual family and my Kansas City Chiefs family have been altered forever." He asked for privacy and prayers.

In the locker room in the Chiefs' training facility Thursday, he acknowledged, "It's been a tough season for me.

"I think God won't put on me much that I can't handle," he said. "I'm thinking I'm blessed that he gave a talent and I can go out there and perform every weekend. Also, I'm blessed to have a strong faith that I can handle stuff off the field."